Bacon Jalapeño Chicken

Grilled chicken season is over at this house, time for some different ideas. I had chicken, bacon, jalapeño and cheddar...it's not going to be a healthy dish, although there is nothing wrong with a little decadence. I think I will make bite size versions of this as an appetizer for the World Series, let's go Mets! Here's what you need:

Chicken breast (cut into 4 lengthwise quarters) 

1/2 jalapeño for each chicken piece 

Bacon, I slice per chicken piece

Seasoning of your choice

Shredded cheese optional

Here's what you do:

Cut up your peppers and chicken. Season the chicken, I used my standard salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, cayenne, paprika, dried parsley. 

Place the pepper on top of the chicken and wrap the bacon tightly around it, making sure the ends are underneath. You can secure with a toothpick if you'd rather not live life on the edge. 

You can get them prepped up to one day ahead, keep covered in the fridge until you are ready to cook. 

In a large nonstick skillet, cook chicken over medium-high heat, bottom side down first. 

Turning gently after about 5 minutes, the bacon should be getting brown and crisp. Cook another 5 or so minutes until chicken is no longer pink in the center. They can be finished in a 400 degree oven if needed. You can top them with shredded cheddar and place under the broiler for a minute. I forgot to do that before I took the picture!

I served them with some roasted asparagus and smashed new potatoes. 

Tip of the month:

You can download all sorts of printable labels on Pinterest. I love storing in jars and I really love these chalkboard looking labels. I just used mod podge to stick them on. Currently, this half shelf is the only organized part of my life. 

On to Crafty business:

I've been working on these vintage animals 

Flannel throws for future gifts

Another baby hat (it will be an owl hat) 

And of course, this pun towel 

I love a quick fix

Sometimes you just need to make something and I am all about quick little sewing projects. I am also all about coffee and fabric so it was only natural that I jumped on the coffee sleeve bandwagon! These are super easy to make. I opened up a cardboard sleeve and traced it on cardstock with a 3/4" seam allowance. From there I cut out a piece of fabric, muslin for interior, and a piece of insulated batting, pinned in a hair elastic, sewed around leaving an opening to turn rightside out, topstitch, sew on a button and DONE! I made 5 in 30 minutes total. The hardest part was making sure the fabric wasn't upside down! See, easy peasy!

It's not oilcloth!

A cute little baby gift for Sheena at JoAnn Fabrics. I have mentioned Sheena before but I'll refresh for any new readers. Sheena is a super-friendly young lady that works at my nearby JoAnns. She has a smile that lights the entire store and talks to everyone that she sees and if she really likes you she will hug you hello and goodbye. (she must like me cuz she's always hugging me!) Sheena is having a baby girl in a few weeks and they are giving her a little baby shower today in the store. I whipped these up last night while watching CSI. I tend to avoid pink gifts because it's usually been done to death.
Hope she loves it!


While I have you, I would like to talk about a new series that I will be chatting about called "Life downstairs". I live upstairs from my parents, you can call them Frank and Ro. This adds a bit of interest to my daily life. Here is an excerpt:
Tomato plants were "buy one get one free" last week...this is huge in "life downstairs".
Frank- Hey Ro, I'll go buy 2 and then when I come home you go buy another 2 and then when the shifts change I'll go get another 2.
Ro- *grumblegrumble* OhforcryinoutloudFrank!
Later that day Ro realizes that Frank bought yellow tomatoes and now has cause to torture him all day.
Frank- Hey Ro, I think we should plant these now
Ro-*grumblegrumble*OhforcryinoutloudFrank! It's too soon, even the idiot on the news said so.
After an entire day of heated discussion Frank has a plan.
Frank- Hey Ro, let's keep the tomatoes in the wheely cart in the garage and bring them out during the day.
Ro-*grumblegrumble*OhforcryinoutloudFrank! Fine.
So, everyday at 9:00 am the tomatoes come out and Frank lets Ro know when the sun moves so she can wheel the tomatoes to it. Every night at 5:00 the tomatoes get put back in the garage.
This is life downstairs.

fall favors

We are celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of my coworkers on Friday so I got to play at work all day yesterday. I stayed behind to man the fort while the entire office went to NYC for advertising week festivities. It was fine by me because I got to make fun stuff for the surprise "shower" we are having Friday.

I dipped small pretzel rods in white chocolate, decorated with fall sprinkles and bagged them. Then I added a fake leaf and velvet ribbon and TA DA! We have pretty fall shower favors!
Did I show you my new Oilcloth Halloween Banner?

The rest of my life is just general busyness, oilcloth and the pursuit of not being dirt poor.
How about you?

Good day for mail!

It's 90 degrees
It's 70% humidity.
I have the boot.
But wait...the mailman brought lovely things for me today!
I won a drawing over at casa calamity
http://calamitykim.typepad.com/calamity_kim/ and the prize was a copy of Cloth Paper Scissors featuring Kim herself

(yay Kim!)
In true Kim fashion, she sent me a sweet little package with a nice note, a packet of tea and my very own Calamity Kim Art Doll!!

It says to collect or trade, I'm keeping mine :)

Thanks Kim, you're swell!
Then there's a package from my long lost friends at
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/index.aspx
I bet they missed me since I've been on a fabric diet! Anyway, they had a pretty good clearance sale going on and I was able to snag charm squares for $3.98 a pack. You've got to love that!


Suddenly everything seems more bearable.

Healing nicely

Thanks so much for all of the get well wishes!
Julia is healing nicley and is happy that she can swim with her cast. We are very happy that she can swim with her cast!! I am still lugging this awful boot around, UGH! I keep telling myself that it is better than having a cast on 24-7 but it really just sucks.
The quilt was well received at the shower on Sunday, I really think she liked it. I also made and gave a belated baby gift to someone at the shower:


Other than that, I have been sewing oilcloth like crazy. For some unknown reason I had a record amount of sales over the weekend. Woohoo!
Here's the new additions:



I hope you are all staying cool, thanks for stopping by!

"something blue"

It's done!
I slapped the binding on last night, tossed it in the washer and dryer and here it is:

The fastest quilt I ever made, no doubt. It's throw size 60x50-ish I normally like to hand quilt but there was no time for that. I am sooooo glad that it is finished and that it's not hanging over my head all week. I hate to pat myself on the back but I am quite pleased!
I will try to get some better pictures of it if I have any good weather and light and time all at once.

the family suffers

...but the quilt gets made. I am one bad-ass quilter when I set my mind to it!
I spent all of yesterday arranging and sewing squares



I machine quilted (rather lamely) after church today



And now I am ready for binding



But this must wait because we have a birthday party this afternoon.

Pressure!

Some people love to work under pressure. That kind of people is not me. I like to have some kind of a plan and an ample amount of time. I like to be finished with an assignment well before it is due. It helps me to sleep at night and also keeps me sane. This quilt needs to be finished by 2:00 next Sunday and is causing me a bit of anxiety! *breathes into a paper bag* This would be totally fine and it could be done if my world would stop for a few days.



On the other hand, I am glad that I won't have too much time with it because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it already and I will have a hard time parting with it. After sewing oilcloth every day for a year, it gives me so much pleasure to sink my sewing machine needle into cotton...don't get me wrong, I still loves me some oilcloth but it's not cotton, Amy Butler cotton at that. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh


It was another busy week here at Rick Rack Central; lunch bags are selling, dance recital, softball, summer work party and xrays and doctors appt that I will fill you in on after Monday's visit.

Many thanks

Thanks for the birthday greetings! They were much needed and appreciated. The day got better. The family realized what day it was, I got to work and there were flowers and balloons along with my coworkers singing to me. (Yes, Deb I got your singing voice mail...keep up with those lessons, you're coming along great!)
Here's a quilty preview:

I'm sad about this one. It's a shower gift for someone who doesn't like me very much. This person also doesn't particularly like handmade things very much especially when made by someone who is me. Before you say, "Don't even go to the shower", "Don't give her any gift"; I have to go, there's no way around it. So, I am using my very nice fabric in colors that she loves and I will make a very nice quilt, all the while knowing that it may end up in Goodwill. (Yes, I will haunt the local Goodwill stores after the shower and buy it back)
Sorry to be so vague here but it's all I can say.
Keep watching for quilty progress!

Half-assed winner

Me: Julia, quick, pick a number 1-13
Julia: (dressed in game uniform shown here) Um, one.

Congratulations to Sarah http://thehouseofkrom.blogspot.com/
She was comment number 1 and therefore wins the half-assed bag contest! I have your address on file already and will mail it out on Tuesday.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
Happy Memorial Day.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to all you moms!



To those of you that aren't moms...go find a mom and give her a hug.

I am off to church where we will have the May Crowning, celebrating the Mother of all Mothers.


Julia and the other communicants get to wear their dresses again and crown The Blessed Mother while singing my favorite church song, "Ave Maria".
*weep*
Have a great day ladies!

not much excitement

A little remnant bin therapy:

I had to stop by JoAnn fabrics to see my favorite employee, Sheena, and gift her with an oilcloth lunchbag. Sheena is a college age girl who is ALWAYS happy and smiling. She hugs her favorite customers at least 3 times each visit. I wish I brought my camera with me so you could see her!
I gave her a bag like this:

I thought she would cry.
Other than that, my life has been all about softball. Here's pictures from Julia's first game (they won!)


Gabby's team is undefeated 3-0 and Sammy's team doesn't start games until June.
Yikes!
I need to make lunches...have a great day :)

getting by, and you?

It's been a tough couple of weeks around here. My husband was sick for over a week with a cough that shakes the windows, makes his ribs feel broken and rattles my last nerve. He wasn't sleeping...I wasn't sleeping, he was sick and cranky...I was cranky. He's back to work but still not feeling 100% so I have been doing my normal thing plus what he couldn't. I always appreciate him but I have a deeper appreciation after my gas light in my car has gone on 3 seperate times (he puts gas in my car), I've been to the grocery store 4 times a week for work and home (he picks up groceries), emptying the litter box (ugh), doing all the driving of all the children all the time, etc., etc.
All this with raging PMS! How am I doing? getting by, and you?

It can always be worse though. I made this super soft fairy princess blanket for my coworker's 3 year old daughter. Hope was born with a heart deformity and needless to say, has had lots of medical issues throughout her little life. She goes for a major heart surgery on Wednesday. I always struggle with "what to do" in these situations so I usually turn to my sewing machine. Hope loves to dress up like a princess every day, I think she may actually be a princess. Please keep little Hope in your thoughts and prayers this week.

So, I made this cool gift...

and I forgot to take a picture again, DOH!
I have a coworker who just turned 30. She's super-organized, very efficient and sends out greeting cards to all her friends and family (like it's her part-time job) for every holiday. She comes to work with a stack of cards, stamps and corresponding stickers and gets them all mailed out in time. It's very sweet. I was shocked when she told me that she throws out her extra cards and stickers because she doesn't have a system or place to keep them.
Sooooooooo, I found really pretty expandable file boxes at Target and set up the tabs by holiday using some pretty scrapbooking papers and a P-Touch Labeler. I filled it with some stickers, cards, stamps, etc. (pretend you can see a picture)
and also some of these handmade cards (that I did take a picture of)



I spent my long weekend cleaning my sewing room, it was long overdue and it was all spilling into our bedroom. I have a little more finishing up to do and maybe I'll snap a few pictures.
Have a good day :)

aww, you guys!

Thank you for leaving me such great comments. I felt like such a whiney brat the instant that I clicked "publish" but it was a necessary post. I was coming off a particularly grueling week and gearing up for a marathon weekend of basketball, birthday parties, highschool dances, church, cheerleading, science fair projects, softball clinic, etc. Aside from sleeping, I wasn't at home for any longer than an hour at a time all weekend. I was ready to snap by Sunday night. I wouldn't say that my kids are indulged; but there are 3 of them and they are very social. Even if we share the driving, we are still in the car a lot. They are indulged in expensive education, I will admit to that, but we aren't willing to turn them over to the public schools in our city (it's really bad!) or let them be taught by some raving lunatic at home (that'd be me). So, we work like idiots and I have meltdowns. Thanks for listening.
In between running, I made gifts for parties. Here's one:

I forgot to take a picture of the other one. It was a cute one too, darn it!
Anyway, thanks again for your comments. You are all so nice (and funny!) I am awful at responding to people but I always smile when I read comments and am happy that you stop by.
Have a nice day:)